India and Iran Try to Keep Energy Link Open

NEW DELHI — Officials in India and Iran have been scrambling to keep the $11 billion in oil and gas trade between them going after India’s central bank declared last week that a regional clearinghouse could no longer be used to settle payments for such transactions. The move, which was long sought by the United States as a way to tighten sanctions against Iran, makes it tougher for Indian companies to buy Iranian oil and natural gas because they can no longer use the Asian Clearing Union, which was set up by the United Nations in the 1970s to ease commerce between Asian countries by handling payments. The clearinghouse allowed Indian companies to pay Iranian companies via the two countries’ central banks. But it also meant that the transactions were less transparent, making payments to companies linked to Iranian companies controlled by groups banned under the sanctions even more obscure.

Central bankers from both countries were to meet on Friday, officials in India said, to try to resolve the impasse. WWW.WDALAW.COM
“We are working on an alternate settlement mechanism,” India’s oil secretary, S.Sundareshan, said Thursday at a news conference. “It is being discussed at length with the Ministry of Finance and a solution will be found in the course of the next few days.”

India’s decision to rethink its crude oil purchasing rules seems to have come after President Barack Obama visited in November, and is a sign of the deepening ties between India and the United States. The two countries have much in common but have often been at odds.

Still, the decision came as a surprise to many analysts.

“India buys huge quantities of crude oil from Iran and to replace those volumes remains tricky,” said Praveen Kumar, head of the South Asia oil and gas team at the consultancy Facts Global Energy. “We’re talking about an existing system already in place that meets a lot of India’s existing requirements.” Weaning India from Iranian oil is particularly difficult now as supplies are tight, prices high and the Indian government is eager to cut subsidized prices its own citizens pay for petroleum products.

India imports some 350,000 to 400,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran, about 15 percent of India’s total crude imports. Much of that crude is imported by India’s state-owned oil companies, because private oil companies in India that were reliant on Iranian imports have pared their imports in recent years under U.S. pressure.

While China has shrugged off the U.S. drive to impose sanctions against Iran, India does not have that option. India is “not left with much choice,” said Mr. Kumar. It is as if their “big brother,” in the form of the United States, “has told them to do this,” he said.

Indeed, the United States has long wanted India to stop processing payments to Iran via its central bank clearing system.

A White House spokesman praised the decision of the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, writing in an e-mail statement that the bank had “made the right decision to carefully scrutinize and reduce its financial dealings with the Central Bank of Iran.”

India has long had cordial relations with Iran, which is an important regional player, for practical and ideological reasons.

India was one of the founding nations of the nonaligned movement, which in theory was a middle ground for countries that did not take sides in the Cold War.

Long after the collapse of the Soviet Union, nonalignment persisted in India, evolving into a pragmatic approach to troublesome neighbors like Iran, analysts say. In the past, India has seen Iran as a potential bulwark against Pakistani influence in Afghanistan. But in recent years such considerations have taken a back seat to India’s wider aspirations. It has stood against Iran on nuclear issues as it pursues international recognition and acceptance of its nuclear status. India is seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, and wishes to be seen as a responsible global player, said C.Raja Mohan, a strategic analyst.

“India is not going to jeopardize its own interests because as a nonaligned country it must support Iran,” Mr. Mohan said.  Hotel in Abidjan, where Mr. Ouattara and his supporters are sequestered.

A United Nations spokesman said Friday afternoon that the peacekeeping forces there — who had been preparing for a possible attack on the hotel by militants who support Mr. Gbagbo — believed that, at least for the moment, the threat had subsided.

“We got word this morning that the storming of the Golf Hotel has been called off for now, ostensibly to give peace a chance,” said Michel Bonnardeaux, the United Nations spokesman.

For now, United Nations vehicles are still allowed in and out of the hotel compound, and they received a commitment from Mr. Gbagbo’s army chief, Gen. Philippe Mangou, that the peacekeepers could move around Abidjan unimpeded, Mr. Bonnardeaux said. In the capital, Yamoussoukro, United Nations representatives have continued to have trouble gaining access to its southern reaches. They also have not been able to investigate two areas outside of Abidjan where there have been reports of mass graves. According to the United Nations, at least 173 people have been killed in postelection violence.

Asylum offers to displaced leaders have sometimes helped defuse volatile situations, and the Obama administration has been working since the election results were certified to help negotiate Mr. Gbagbo’s departure. President Obama sent a letter to Mr. Gbagbo on Dec. 5, and the White House tried to reach him by telephone twice, both times unsuccessfully, once before Mr. Gbagbo swore himself in to another term, and once about 10 days later. It was during those efforts that the proposal for him to relocate to the United States, Africa or France came up, as well as the idea that he could take a post at some international group.

“There is plenty of precedent, for instance, of former African leaders who have gone on to work with regional or international institutions,” an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official noted that Mr. Gbagbo also had a history as an academic, before repeating that the offer could soon be withdrawn. “The longer the stalemate ensues, and the more violence there is, the more that window closes,” the official said. Eric Lipton reported from Washington, and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Honolulu. Adam Nossiter contributed reporting.